Mechanical organ



(No Model.) 7

E. S. VOTEY.

MEGHANIOAL ORGAN.

No. 407,801. F [Patented Ju1y'30, 1889.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDIVIN S. VOTEY, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

MECHANICAL ORGAN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 407,801, dated July 30, 1889.

Application filed August 10, 1888. Serial No. 282,450. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWIN S. VOTEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Detroit, county of Wayne, State of Michigainhave invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Mechanical Organs; and I declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

In the said drawings, Figurel is a horizontal section showing parts in plan; and Fig. 2, a frontelevation, with parts broken away, of a mechanical organ embodying my invention. Fig. 3 represents mechanism whereby the motor which operates the bellows serves at the same time to feed and rewind the music-sheet.

Heretofore in the construction of mechanical organs or orchestrones in which air is admitted to the reeds through perforated musicsheets wound upon rolls it has been customary to operate the air-bellows and draw the sheet off by hand, and subsequently to rewind it by hand, or to do the same through the medium of a foot--treadle. So, also, a foottreadle has been employed to pump air, as a reed-organ is pumped, and this air has been fed through an air-motor for the same purpose; but in these cases the labor involved is very considerable, and the instrument is not capable of the fine gradations or modulations of sound which would result from a more direct and steady control of the propellingpower.

It is the purpose of my invention to combine with a mechanical organ or orohestrone of this character an electric motor for operating the bellows; also, in the provision of means whereby the paper may be fed and after having been expended may be rewound either by the same or another motor; also, in the combination, with the mechanical organ or orchestrone and its feeding-motor, of a rheostat and a stop, governable either by the hand or the foot, whereby the rheostat may be manipulated at the will of the operator, and through it the speed of the motor be steadily and effectuallygoverned and accelerated or retarded at the will of the operator.

To this end, A represents any mechanical organ or orchestrone. B is its music-roll, and B the perforated music-sheet.

G is an electric motor, geared by any convenient means wit-h the mechanismfor operating the bellows.

D is a rheostat, and E a stop adapted to be operated by the hand for controlling the said rheostat, although I would have it understood that this rheostat might be arranged to be governed by the foot.

The orchestrone or mechanical organ may be provided with suitable stops and corresponding mechanism for regulating the speed with which the sheet is fed from the roll,and with other mechanism whereby the paper may be rewound upon the roll. My invention is independent of any particular means for accomplishing these ends. It may be accomplished by an independent electric motor F, for feeding the paper from the roll and for rewinding the same, and in this case the feed ing of the roll becomes absolutely independent of the speed of the motor which operates the bellows, and the electric motor E may or may not be provided with an independent rheostat for governing its speed, and by this arrangement of independent motors the operator is enabled, through the medium of the rheostat or rheostats, by changing and graduating the speed of the motor, to modulate the volume of sound to any desired degree. He may without changing the speed of the musicsheet modulate the volume of soundfrom full volume, due to a full bellows, down to a subdued volume, due to almost an exhausted bellows, and in this way maybe produced effects not attained hitherto in instruments of this character, and may thus change the volume or amplitude of the sound without alteringits quality, as the same would be altered by any mechanism in the nature of a swell. On the other hand, with an independent motor Ffor feeding and rewindin g the music-roll, the rate of feed may be governed entirely independent of the speed of the motor which operates the bellows, and this regulation of the feed may in like manner, if desired, be accomplished by the rheostat F.

WVhile the apparatus maybe provided with independent motors for the bellows and for teeding'and rewindingthepapei roll,thesame may be accomplished through the medium of a single motor, as shown in Fig. 2-3, in. whirl] G is a disk provided with a band-seat, whereby it may be geared by suitable belting, or otherwise, to the motor (1, by whieh the bellows are operated. This disk G is brought into frictional eng gelnent with. a disk ll, connected tilreetly orindireetly with theroller Ill. A suitable stop Ill is provided, whereby the disk ll may be moved forward. or backward. It manifest that by bringing the disk It forward, so that it engages the disk elose to its peripher it thereby imparts a rapid motion to the nn'isie-roll. 13, while the shifting of the disk ltnearer to the center of the disk G will decrease the speed of the music-roll in a COtl 'ponding degree, and in this way the rate of feed ot the music-sheet may be governed at the will. of the operator at all times. After the music-sheet has been expended the disk ll may be pushed to the o uposite side of the shaft This will give to the disk llv a reverse 11tt')tl()1t,tlltl so rewind the in us ie-sheet at any speed the. operator may desire. In meehaniealorgansororehestron as it is usually desirable that the wiiul-messure be maintained quite full, in order toproperly operate the pneun'iatie valves, and .i'or this reason the motor which operates the bellows is usually kept; at pretty full speed. in eonstruetious of this eharaeter the meehanism shown in Fig. :3 isparticularly 2t| )ll(".ttl)l(; but even with this eonstruetion the operator may modulate the volume of sound by varying the speed of the motor U through the medium of the rheostat, and at the same time regulate the teed of the nuisie-sheet by the stop it.

l lleotrie motors have been used heretofore in whieh means are provided for eutting out part of the coils ol' the ,tielil-niag'uet and in sorting an equivalent number of rt'zsistanees in the eireuit of said. magnet. An eleetrieal piano has also been used having strings tuned to ditl'erent pitehes, and eleetrieal-impulsee'ivino; devices arranged to act eleetriealiy upon the strings to eause them to vibrate with one or more t'llCOtUliltiH for producing a vibratory eurren't. l make no elaim to either of these invtnitions.

rl'hat I claim. is

l. in a meehanieal organ, the eonibimntion, with thepapord'eedinemoehauism, ol? an eleetrie motor, a rheostat, and. a stop, whereby more or less resistance may be inserted in the eireuit at will to vary the speed ot the paper, the bellows being operated by indepemlent means, substantially as dtiiseribed.

3. in a meehaniral organ, the eomhination, with a rotary disk geared to the motor, of a disk having: its axis at rightane'les tothetirst disk and bearing with its periphery against the [lat face of the latter, means t'or adjusting said diskto have its l'rietional eontaet with the tirst disk at dit't'erent points upon the tlat face of the latter between the shalt and the edge, and a pulley ontheshat't ot' Ihetrietionally-driven, disk geared to the luusie-roll or paper-teeding;- roll, substantially as deserihed.

in to. .imony whereof I sign this speeitioation in the presenee of two witnesses.

W itn esses:

M. t;. ()t)otain'lrrv, Banner. 1*). 'tuonas. 

